


Future's Past

by larxenethefirefly



Series: Music of Eternity [13]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-21
Updated: 2014-02-21
Packaged: 2018-01-13 06:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1215649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larxenethefirefly/pseuds/larxenethefirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's 1969 and Martha is thoroughly disenchanted with being stuck in the past. Until she meets Rose, a woman who works for UNIT and helps make her situation a bit more bearable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future's Past

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to lunarsilverwolfstar for the beta :)
> 
> * * *

To say she was unhappy wasn’t an accurate statement, but she was definitely annoyed. Three weeks into this job and not only were the other employees still ignoring her, but yesterday she had three customers insult her to her face, waited at the bus stop in the pouring rain with no umbrella, and got back to the tiny flat that wouldn’t pass health standards in her normal time to find out the Doctor hadn’t cooked dinner, nor made one effort to clean.

All in all, 1969 was a wonderful place to visit, but not to live. Martha had quickly lost all her hope five minutes after she had been transported here.

At least the Doctor seemed to be doing better. She knew he was still mourning his wife, but building the things he needed to get back to his ship seemed to have lifted his spirits. Ever since his suicide attempt at the hospital, Martha decided that he needed her help and, while he was definitely her most difficult patient, he was probably the most rewarding. After all, it wasn’t every day that you get a chance to visit all of Time and Space.

Though this side-effect of Time travel was decidedly not one of her top ten.

Martha hung up some new bright pink and orange polyester dresses, the design and colour an eyesore and out of style before it was even made. She pitied the poor fool who thought it was worth the money.

A young blonde haired woman wearing a simple red cotton dress with a white belt and shoes winced at them. “Those should have been burned in a fire before they got here,” she said. “How can anyone wear that?”

Martha smiled, but replied noncommittally. “I’m sure there’s someone somewhere.”

She made a face. “They ought to be arrested for disturbing the peace.” At Martha’s laugh she smiled. “Are you new here? I haven’t seen you before.”

“Martha, just moved here,” she replied, shaking the woman’s hand. “A friend and I were travelling, but something happened to our transport. Since we’re stranded for the foreseeable future, I’m stuck working here.”

She smiled in sympathy. “I know the feeling. I’m Rose. Work for UNIT, but every once in a while I sneak out of the compound for a bit of retail therapy.”

Martha had heard of UNIT, of course. The Doctor had warned her to stay away from them, since he claimed he was working for them now in one of his previous lives. That had prompted him explaining about regeneration and, though Martha wondered if this other Doctor could perhaps give them a ride back to the future, she didn’t inquire further. There was probably a good reason why he was avoiding their radar. “Military types are always stuffy,” she said instead. “How long do you have? There’s a pub not too far from here.”

Rose looked intrigued. “I saw that walking here. How is it?”

“Don’t know. Haven’t had the time to check it out,” Martha admitted.

Rose looked at her watch. “What time you get off? Doesn’t look much fun to go by myself, and you deserve a break. It’ll be my treat,” she added, mistaking Martha’s hesitation for lack of funds. Though that was partly it, of course, there were other factors to include: namely, the Doctor.

“I can’t,” Martha said. “I’m in charge of dinner.” She had meant to ask Rose if they could meet up during the weekend, but the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea of going after work.

“Let me guess, he doesn’t do much in the way of ‘domestics’?” Rose asked, making air quotes.

Martha nodded. “God, no. I asked him the other day to put the kettle on and he looked at me like I sprouted three heads. And forget laundry. He’s been wearing the same clothes for three days, and if it weren’t for me reminding him he’d probably forget to shower!”

Rose giggled. “Tell me about it. Mine’s always in the lab and forgetting to eat. It’s a wonder how he survived all these years.”

As they laughed over the impossibilities of men, Martha’s floor manager walked up to them sternly. “I’m not paying you to gossip,” he said shortly. “Get back to work.”

Her face fell and Rose’s eyes blazed before she smiled at the man sweetly. “I’m terribly sorry, sir. It’s my fault.”

He looked at Rose. “It’s not your fault, ma’am. She should know better than to slack off. May I recommend one of the other workers?”

Rose’s smile was tight. “No thank you. Martha is perfect, actually. I prefer someone with a sense of humour, and Martha has good taste.”

“Jackie has an excellent sense of humour…”

Rose ignored him and turned back to Martha. “I’m afraid I have some fancy parties to attend so I’m going to need at least three gowns, and some new casual wear. I’ve ruined three jeans this week and if the situation in Birmingham gets worse I’ll ruin more.”

The manager, seeing that he was in a losing battle, retreated to watch them intently. Though Martha was subdued, Rose eventually got her smiling again, and they were whispering insults about a pair of trousers not soon after.

“You know what?” Martha said as she ran up Rose’s purchases. “I’ll take you up on your offer. I need fun, and himself can survive a few hours without me.”

Rose beamed. “Great! I’ll meet you when you get off.”

~*~

Martha entered the tiny flat at eleven thirty, half-expecting the Doctor to still be working on the odd device that he was developing for Billy Shipton’s arrival. So when the door wrenched open as she was searching for her key, she dropped it she was so startled.

“Where’ve you been?” the Doctor demanded as she bent to retrieve it.

Surprised, Martha stared at him. He looked… annoyed. “I’ve been at the pub. Met a friend at work, and took her up on her offer when she invited me to join her.”

The Doctor’s frown deepened. “You were supposed to cook dinner!”

Martha sighed and shoved past him. “Let me guess. You only noticed I was gone when you got hungry?” At his guilty look she nodded. “You live here too, Doctor. And if you want me around you’re gonna have to start pulling your weight. I work all day to pay for the rent; the least you can do is take five minutes to clean and order takeaway.”

He looked apologetic. “Sorry, Martha. The TARDIS usually takes care of things for me, and before that Rose…” He took a deep breath, then let it go slowly. “Anyway, I promise I’ll try to be a better roommate.”

Martha nodded, feeling exhausted. “Thank you.”

She fell asleep almost immediately.

~*~

Rose met her at the park the next day for lunch, after Martha had spent a busy morning helping one of Rose’s friends- a woman named Liz who was delightfully sarcastic- and happily discussed medical practices with her. Martha made sure to not speak too much about future practices, but wasn’t entirely successful. Luckily, Liz didn’t seem to notice, simply mentioning that Martha reminded her of a ‘friend’.

“Did the roommate finally step up?” Rose asked when Martha sat down.

Martha nodded. “He cooked breakfast. I doubt that he’ll keep it up, but it was nice to have a few extra minutes to relax before my day started.”

Rose smiled. “Good. So how’s your day been?”

Martha spoke a little of Liz and how her manager had been exceptionally rude that day, still angry that she had, quite suddenly, become one of the more popular sales girls. Since he had not hired her, he clearly wanted Martha gone and this wasn’t complying with his plans.

They were just throwing away their trash and about to head towards Martha’s job when a blue puffball suddenly fell in front of them, and after rolling for a moment popped up. It had large eyes and a small beak, and blinked at them before chirping.

“What is that?” Rose asked and Martha shrugged.

More seemed to be falling from the sky and they watched as a large group fell into the street. A car honked and swerved, but ran into a pink one. Its eyes abruptly turned red and seconds later detonated.

Those in its immediate vicinity detonated as well, creating a screaming mob in the middle of London, trampling more of the little fuzz balls and creating even more small explosions. Rose groaned. “Seriously? I can’t have one day off?”

“You do this often then?” Martha asked and winced as someone kicked one of the demon puffs into her store. It blew up seconds later. Well, she didn’t like it much anyway.

Rose looked around wildly, then grabbed an abandoned soda. She dumped it over one of the puffballs and scooped it up. It squawked angrily when it wasn’t able to blow up. “I’ve seen these guys before. Get them wet and they can’t explode, but I don’t know if we can corral them fast enough. They’re like tribbles.”

“We just have to corral them?” Martha asked as she saw a few devouring a steak.

Rose nodded, trying to stuff her puffball into an abandoned bag. Since she was preoccupied, Martha spotted a nearby butchers shop and frantically tried to remember the way to the fountain. Carefully avoiding the rapidly growing population of aliens, she dashed into the butcher shop and starting throwing meat into a nearby basket. “Sorry!” she shouted and the butcher’s exclamation. “Someone’ll pay you back, I swear!”

“They better!” he shouted after her.

Martha ran out into the street. “Hey, demon furbies!” she shouted and waved a sausage link. “Free buffet!”

She was nearly swarmed, but managed to escape from their clutches. Rose raced after her, whooping excitedly, taking part of Martha’s stash and they left out small bits every so often to keep the fuzzy aliens interested. Martha felt like the pied piper- if the pied piper was leading furbies that blew up on contact rather than rats or children. It certainly wasn’t the most bizarre situation Martha had been in, but it was certainly the most conspicuous. Oh, if the Doctor could see her now. They approached the fountain at a run, the aliens getting impatient. Without wasting time they dashed into the water, tossing meat over their shoulder as the fuzzy puffballs piled after them.

“This is insane!” Martha cried as the water started frothing from the crazed furbies.

Rose laughed and started wading toward the opposite side. “Come on, UNIT will be here any moment. Get whatever you can to hose down the stragglers!”

Martha used her bag to scoop up water and awkwardly toss it towards the back of the group, while Rose began shoving the fuzzy demon puffballs further into the fountain so that more could crowd up into the water. They were screeching angrily at her but were silenced when Martha stole some hotdogs from the vendor; eventually all the demon furbies were in the fountain, Rose and Martha circling them and shoving them back in whenever they tried to escape.

Moments later, several jeeps pulled up and Rose waved cheerily at a white-haired man wearing an opera cape of all things. “All under control here!” Rose said happily.

A serious gentleman in a uniform approached her. “This all of them?”

“We think so,” Rose admitted as she kicked another demon furby back into the fountain. It squeaked in outrage. “There might still be a few wandering around, but they might have blown up by now. Though a child might want to take one home.”

The white-haired man was scanning the aliens with a suspiciously familiar tool and Martha found herself remembering what the Doctor said about working for UNIT.

She looked at Rose, putting two and two together and getting five. No wonder the Doctor had been more moody since arriving in this time period. His wife had just died and yet she was here too, younger, but still alive and untouchable. How hard must it be for him to not sneak a look? Martha wondered.

“I’m not getting any readings outside of a ten mile radius,” the man in the opera cape announced. “Seems you and your friend here got them all, Rose.”

The military man nodded at Martha. “Thanks, Miss…?”

“Jones,” Martha replied. “And it was no bother, really.”

Rose walked over to them, her hand clasped with the white-haired man’s. “Martha, this the Doctor, and the man you’re talking to is Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. This is Martha. She’s who I’ve been talking about lately; if she weren’t leaving soon I’d recommend you’d recruit her,” she grinned.

“We’ll certainly keep you in mind in case you ever need a job,” the Brigadier said.

Martha wondered briefly if that promise would extend a few decades, but shook his hand in thanks. “I’ll certainly think about it,” she assured him.

The various UNIT personnel got to work and Martha was kindly, but firmly, escorted to the fringes so that she wouldn’t get in the way. Rose was laughing with the Doctor and Martha couldn’t help but think that she was a remarkable woman, staying with the Doctor for so long, even if she seemed as human as Martha herself was.

“Martha!” she heard her Doctor call out and she turned to see the man (alien) run over. “Is everything alright? What happened?”

Martha froze briefly before walking away, hoping the Doctor would follow her. “I’m fine. We should get going, though; don’t want to interrupt.” To her concern the Doctor wandered closer to see what has happened. “Doctor, we really should go. Now.”

He looked at her, confused, and opened his mouth to say something before he went utterly pale. Resigned, Martha turned to see Rose approaching her.

“Thanks for all the help today!” Rose said as she hugged Martha. “UNIT has everything well in hand but I’ve been called back to HQ. Want to reschedule for a later time?”

Martha looked back at the Doctor, who seemed to have recovered but had a look of such sadness and longing that she couldn’t keep looking. “Yeah, that sounds great. What about Thursday?”

“Sounds great.” Rose looked over Martha’s shoulder curiously. “That your friend, then?” At her helpless nod, Rose shouted, “Oi, mister! Martha works hard for a living so you better be nice to her! Cook some meals and clean up for a change!” She looked away from him with a grin. “If he still causes trouble let me know. My slap isn’t something to be trifled with.”

“Don’t worry, I think you threatened him well and good,” Martha replied. “See you Thursday?”

Rose nodded happily as she walked off to where her Doctor was calling her name impatiently. “It’s a date!”

Martha took a deep breath, steeling herself, before walking towards the Doctor. His eyes were closed and though he was still sorrowful, he looked- well, better wasn’t the right word, but he looked like he had been given a second chance. Which, she considered, wasn’t too far from the truth. “I… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Rose sooner,” she apologized. “I didn’t know who she was until a few moments ago.”

“It’s alright, Martha,” he said. “I didn’t think to warn you. I had forgotten all about this, honestly. Things in Birmingham were much more important. Anyway, I was on my way to tell you that Billy Shipton is due to arrive soon. Want to go greet him?”

“Yeah,” she said and they started walking towards the bus stop. “Doctor, why don’t you have lunch with us on Thursday? I’m sure Rose won’t mind, and that way you’ll-”

“I can’t, Martha,” he said, quietly. “It… she’s Rose, but she’s not the Rose I’ve been with. She hasn’t been through the War, she hasn’t discovered who she truly is, she hasn’t looked into the TARDIS… it will hurt too much. She’s still gone to me, Martha. And all I can see is that last moment we had together.”

Martha was quiet as they waited for the bus to arrive, before finally speaking up. “Gareth Lincoln was my best friend in secondary. We did everything together- homework, projects, even shared our first beer. He died at seventeen when he hit black ice and went off a bridge. He had left my house upset because we had fought over something I can’t even remember now; but the last memory I have of him is me wishing I had never met him. Every day I wish I could see him again, just once, and apologize. I never meant it.” She looked at him. “Rose would want you to be happy, Doctor. And don’t you think she deserves a few more happy memories of you, too?”

“She doesn’t remember me, Martha.” He said quietly. “We met once, before, in my fifth body. She didn’t recognize me then. I can’t… it doesn’t matter, Martha. We need to focus on getting back to the TARDIS so that you, at least, can see your family again.”

Though she knew he was being a coward, Martha let the subject drop. Everyone grieved in different ways and she would let him recover before broaching the subject again. “Okay. Why don’t we catch a movie or something tonight? I got next month’s rent squared away and we have a bit left over for some fun. What do you say?”

“Sounds wonderful,” he said as the bus rumbled to a stop. “But first, we need to find Billy Shipton.”


End file.
